Looking Back

After reading through all 8 posts on my blog, a few things caught my attention.
I remember being skeptical when hearing that the blogs would help us develop, and even change our project. Now that I can see what I have done over the past two months, I realize that plenty of changes occurred through my posts. My project changed directions almost every post. New ideas sprung into my mind as I wrote each post. I was really surprised that the blog helped me develop my project to the extent that it did.
Another thing I noticed was that at the start of this project, I had a vast array of possibilities for what I would do. Now, as the blog posts progress, they each get more and more specific, which is a good and bad thing. It limits me to a specific topic, but it allows me to really focus on it and discover something amazing about it.
Lastly, my project has been lately trending towards articles, books, and papers written about the effects of technology on society. Mrs. Geller provided me with websites that will give me plenty of these writings, but I am trying not to limit my resources just to articles, hopefully incorporating diverse sources of information.

Project Progress

At this point, I believe that I have finished toying with the focus of my topic. Now, I am ready to move on to the second phase of the project, researching and learning. I know that I want to investigate the effect of technology on society, and I believe that books, articles (from magazines and newspapers), and studies will be most useful for my research. I will find articles and studies on Google. I will find books through the web and the library.
Books I am planning on obtaining this week include:
iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us by Larry D. Rosen
Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle
The one aspect of my project that I am still working on is the outside thing I will put together instead of a double sized paper. I still would like to analyze the effect technology has in our school. I wouldn't come to societal conclusions because of my findings, but it would be interesting to see how we have been impacted.

Project/Presentation Ideas

A double size paper doesn't seem very appealing to me, so I have been leaning toward a project. I am hoping I can put together a project that sheds light on the impact of technology on our lives.

The main idea I have right now involves a study about the effects of technology on Frisch. I would explore the ways technology has changed the learning, interactions, studying, and extracurriculars at Frisch. I would compare the Frisch of today to that of ten years ago, when SmartBoards, smartphones, and laptops were not part of everyday life. The main aspect of this project would be polls, surveys, and interviews of students, teachers, and administrators. I would ask questions about the involvement of technology in daily learning, and about the positive or negative impact of that technological integration. This project, if assembled and presented properly, would hopefully assist me in reaching an answer to the debate about the overall effect of technology on humans.

Being that right now I am taking my topic in the direction of learning the pros and cons of technological impacts on society, a project like I discussed would be fit into the paper seamlessly. It would be the microcosm for the technological effect on society. It would allow me to conduct my own research on a local level, not only depending on books and articles written by others. This project might uncover if technology really does bolster learning.

Reaction to Eddie Maza's Blog

I viewed a few of my fellow students' blogs and found Eddie's topic (Educational disparity relative to affluence) very interesting. The topic caught my attention because I feel it is being discussed a lot in the past month. On a local level, a the father of a student in our school recently ran for a position on the Teaneck Board of Education. He noticed that Teaneck taxpayers were paying an extremely high amount of money for public education, but they were getting extremely poor test results from the students. Eddie's project will potentially help solve the problem existent in Teaneck's public school system. Additionally, the Presidential election has brought up topics such as education, government aid, and candidate Mitt Romney's wealth. Eddie's project includes all of these aspects. It will be interesting to follow Eddie's progress as he visits public schools and looks to actually improve the current situation of our educational system. Hopefully he will come up with some solutions and help the less fortunate members of society receive and equal standard of schooling.

Changes to the Topic

This post may be a little late, but it will be a blessing in disguise. Not only have I gotten more time to research and develop my topic, but I have received a comment from Alex Shoenfeld that has given me a whole new direction to my topic that I am hoping to pursue.
My Topic Choice post focused only on the positive impact of technology and social media upon human interaction. After reading Alex's comments on my topic, I realized that I did not even consider the negative aspect of all this advancement, that is the certain disconnect from reality. This idea has opened my eyes to a whole new direction in which I want to take my topic. I really am interested in analyzing the FULL effect that the internet, social media, and texting have on our daily lives, positive and negative. Harmful side effects of all this technological advancement include texting while driving, distractions of computers in the classroom, attention span decrease, disengaged conversations, and supposed "friends" and "followers".
Here are some of the resources I have thought of: Utilizing statistics, data, and studies on information that relays the harmful impact of the digital age. Interviewing people on how much time they spend on the computer and phone. Researching cases that internet connections have directly and clearly had an important impact on the world. The book High Tech/High Touch: Technology and Our Search for Meaning may be of use, but it does not specifically discuss the aspect of connection and interaction through technology. Computers, Phones, and the Internet: Domesticating Information Technology may turn out to be extremely useful if I can get my hands on it.
For now, that is what I am working on, but not nearly all that will go into the project.